The increasing processing capabilities of mobile computer systems have created the improved ability to understand and react to physical objects near said systems. System users' contexts may also be used to provide a richer interaction experience.
Creating a system with the ability to track objects, act upon them, and provide feedback would significantly increase the value of mobile computers to end users. Tabletop systems have been proposed and developed over the years to provide many of these benefits; however, these systems are typically large and thus not mobile nor personal. One of the reasons for the limitations of prior art solutions such as tabletop systems is the requirement of a large device footprint; such devices utilize additional hardware beneath the tabletop surface in order to process activity on the surface as interactions with the system.
Thus, no current solutions exist for providing enhanced user and object interaction for a mobile computer system that do not require additional display capabilities (e.g., an additional screen, a projector), wherein the mechanisms to enhance user and object interaction do not affect the nomadic characteristics of the mobile computing system.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as a discussion of other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein. An overview of embodiments of the invention is provided below, followed by a more detailed description with reference to the drawings.